Number made to stand on trains rises to 139,000 as figures show London's trains are most overcrowded in UK

Passengers stand on a crowded rush-hour Southern train from Brighton to London
PA

Trains on routes into London are more overcrowded than anywhere else in the country, official data has revealed.

Services from Reading, Heathrow, Brighton and Caterham, Surrey, were among the most packed nationwide.

In the morning peak 139,000 passengers were standing on services arriving in the capital, up from 120,000 the same time the previous year.

The overall number of passengers using trains coming into Zone 1 in the morning rose by three per cent to 563,000 in 2014. London’s stations were also creaking with Paddington, Moorgate, St Pancras and Blackfriars having the highest proportion of passengers in excess of capacity.

The Department for Transport’s report on the figures said demand on several routes into London had increased due to the improving economy.

Rail minister Claire Perry said: “I know how frustrated customers are with overcrowding. I expect the rail industry, including operators, to continue to develop innovative proposals to meet the capacity challenge head on.”

Overall, 4.1 per cent of passengers travelling in London last year were in excess of capacity, compared with 3.1 per cent in September 2013. That meant more than a quarter of all trains in the capital were overcrowded and that almost 60 per cent of people found themselves without a seat.

But a DfT spokesman pointed out that while in 2013 all of the 10 most crowded routes were in London, last year’s figures showed the number had fallen to seven.

They included the 6.31am First Great Western service from Reading to Paddington and the 7.57am Heathrow Connect service to Paddington. London Overground was one of the best performing routes in the country.

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